ICANN is having a very serious week.

Straight from their website, ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is: "the non-profit corporation that was formed to assume responsibility for the IP address space allocation, protocol parameter assignment, domain name system management, and root server system management functions previously performed under U.S. Government contract by IANA and other entities.

The Board of ICANN is composed of nineteen Directors: nine At-Large Directors, nine selected by ICANN's three supporting organizations, and the President/CEO (ex officio). Five of the current At-Large Directors were selected according to a vote of Internet users worldwide."

"The EU would like to see the Department of commerce relinquishing control over the root server system altogether."

Back in the 1960's, the Internet was known as ARPANET. ARPANET was part of a research project by the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). They wanted to research packet-switching technology and communications networks.

Being a research project, ARPANET was associated with major Universities such as UCLA. A resourceful and clever grad student named Jon Postel. Postel undertook the task of maintaining the list of host names and addresses plus documents prepared by ARPANET researchers. These lists of addresses were made available to the ARPANET network through DARPA, later named the Defense Information Systems Agency or DISA.

When Postel moved to USC from UCLA, he maintained the list of assigned numbers and names under a contract with DARPA. DARPA let Postel delegate authority to what became the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. The Domain Name System (DNS) was formed to better the operation and by 1990 ARPANET was a memory. Postel went on to develop SMTP and TCP/IP standards and the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transmogrified into ICANN. Postel passed away in 1998.

What has Postel got to do with ICANN's quarterly meeting going on in Bucharest this week?

Postel was very passionate about his little list of Internet addresses and who should be in charge of them. Even though the ICANN is ultimately under the auspices of the US -because their Department of Commerce still has control of the root server system- ICANN itself has been run by private citizens.

The current chief executive of ICANN, Stuart Lynn has made a proposal to be voted on by the group this Friday, June 28, 2002. The proposal is that ICANN appoint representatives of Government and business to their board and no longer accept representatives of technical or citizen groups as board members.

Lynn claims his proposal to appoint politicians would help ICANN gain authority when dealing with governments and in the raising of funds. A lot of people, especially those who wish to keep the spirit of Postel alive, feel that government has no place in ICANN and ICANN has no place in politics.

The European Union is especially hostile to this suggested reformation of ICANN's board. They feel that ICANN is merely pandering to US pressure when the US has enough control over ICANN as it is. The EU would like to see the Department of commerce relinquishing control over the root server system altogether. There is another faction that finds the whole of ICANN's present board to be a self-serving club that should be gutted for fresh members. These malcontents have a lot in common with the US government who questions the authority of a bunch of people (ICANN) who just happened to be around when the net was first formed.

There are many other topics to be discussed in Bucharest this week but the reform of ICANN impedes the progress of all of them. ICANN acknowledges its need for more organization and structure. One of their biggest concerns is raising enough funding to keep the body going. One proposal on the table at Bucharest is the suggestion of a tax on domain registrations in order to fund ICANN.

The average Internet surfer doesn't often hear about or even know who ICANN is. The average adult webmaster probably knows but doesn't pay much attention to ICANN's activities. Just the same, we all find our way around on the Internet with those names that Jon Postel so meticulously cared for. Some of us have our entire livelihoods devoted to them. The ones who have dominion over our domains are always the ones we should watch.

*Update: This article was written on June 27, 2002. The members of ICANN voted on Friday, June 28, 2002 to abolish the practice of appointing individual Internet users -by online election- to its executive board. The 19-member board will now be comprised of representatives from business, government, non-profit organizations and those from the technical field.